


International Diplomacy

by DangerousCommieSubversive



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - House of M, Awkwardness, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-05-07
Packaged: 2017-12-10 16:26:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/788076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerousCommieSubversive/pseuds/DangerousCommieSubversive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The delegation from the Kree and Skrull Empires has arrived, and Prince William is ordered by his aunt to keep the visiting Prince Dorrek entertained. Somehow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	International Diplomacy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Perky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perky/gifts).



> This story is for Perky, because it's a) his fault and b) his birthday. Happy birthday! Have some cute House of M stuff!

Prince Dorrek kept _watching_ him.

William shifted uncomfortably. He'd been introduced to the Skrull prince the day before, of course, but it had been an entirely formal introduction in the midst of the welcome ceremony, both of them hurried on to meet other people before they had a chance to talk. At the banquet and ball that evening, they'd barely exchanged three words—everyone had wanted to talk to the delegation, and William hated parties anyway and had crept away early.

Now, though, he was standing near his grandfather's throne, stiff and uncomfortable in his dress clothes, and the Skrull prince kept _looking_ at him. The voices of the adults were a dull background roar in his ears, Princess Anelle and her Kree consort delivering some kind of rehearsed speech, to which his grandfather and his uncle Pietro responded in kind. His mother wasn't there; she'd been at breakfast, gracious and quiet as always, but then had slipped away complaining of a sick headache. She _always_ had a sick headache.

He shifted again and made the mistake of actually making eye contact with Prince Dorrek, who twitched nervously and then grimaced at him. Was he trying to _smile?_ William waved hesitantly to him. According to the briefings he'd been given before the delegation arrived from the Kree-Skrull Empire, Prince Dorrek was popular with the common people and widely thought of as the royal family's most eligible (and handsome) bachelor; William, looking at his ridged chin, green skin, and incongruous mop of unruly blonde hair, couldn't quite see it. Although the earrings _were_ awfully cute.

Perhaps after this session of court was over he could sneak away to do some reading.

Wait, was it ending now? People were leaving, his uncle was helping his grandfather up, and...“Ow!” He jumped. “What? What did you have to elbow me for?”

Aunt Lorna leaned down next to his ear and hissed, “Go entertain the prince.”

William sneaked a sidelong glance at Prince Dorrek, who was speaking quietly to his father. “What? Prince Dorrek? Why me?”

She rolled her eyes. “For god's sake, Will. You're hardly the person I'd pick for a situation requiring social grace, but your brother went off with that odd Kree boy. Said something about showing him the greenhouses. Go do your princely duty and keep our guest in a good mood.”

“But...” he cast around desperately for an excuse. “But I have studying to do.”

“You mean you just got a new package of comics and you want to go hide in your room.” Lorna sighed. “Offer to show him the library. Or the basketball courts, I've heard he likes games. You're a prince, he's a prince, surely you'll have things to talk about.”

Another sidelong glance, and—yes, Prince Dorrek was watching him _again_. “He looks like he wants to _eat_ me.”

“He definitely wants to do _something_ to you.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Just...go and try being princely for once.”

\--

“So. Uh. Noh-Varr. He's your bodyguard?”

“Technically.” Dorrek shrugged. They'd been making small talk throughout the entire walking tour of the palace; once William had gotten used to the other prince's thick accent it was surprisingly easy to keep up a flow of inane chatter. “I don't really need one, and he's not very good at it. Too impulsive. But we needed to call him _something,_ and he got really angry when Father tried to name him a royal ward.”

“A ward? Where did he come from?”

“He's from another...world-line, he calls it? Does that make sense? Another place, a...a side-by-side universe.”

That took a moment to parse, and then William said, slowly, “He's from another dimension.”

“Yes! Another dimension! That's the word! I'm sorry, I'm not very good at English still—”

“No, no, you're great. I mean. Your English is very good.”

“Um. Thank you. Anyway, the ship he was on just appeared one day, in the sky over one of the scientific facilities on Kree-Lar, and was shot down by the automated defense systems. He was the only survivor. When they found out that his DNA had been altered he was almost declared un-Kree and remanded to scientific study until my father stepped in.”

“Altered?”

“He's part _zheno_.” Off William's confused look, Dorrek added, “It's an insect from Hala. Sort of like a cockroach, but about the size of a...um...a bulldog. And green, with little gold speckles. They're actually very pretty.”

William wrinkled his nose. “They sound _terrifying._ ”

Dorrek looked surprised. “Really? I like them. They make wonderful pets. Very loyal.”

“Insects frighten me.” William shuddered. “All the legs, and the mandibles...”

“I'm sure you just haven't met a nice one yet. Sometime perhaps....perhaps you and your family could come visit us. We have a...a summer home, a vacation home, on Hala, and one of the groundskeepers breeds them.”

“I...” _What's the diplomatic thing to say here? Can't upset the guest, can't upset the_ guest, _Uncle Pietro would_ kill _me..._ “That would be very nice.”

The Skrull prince beamed toothily at him.

The conversation died off for a while as they wandered through the gardens and toward the library. It was slow going; Dorrek seemed fascinated by Earth flora, and kept stopping to read the tags that the gardeners had set down to identify each plant. Since botany had never really been a specialty of William's, he kept quiet.

When they neared the library, though, he noticed that the Skrull prince was _watching_ him again, and finally, feeling faintly exasperated, he said, “I'm sorry, is there something on my face?”

Dorrek twitched an ear, slightly embarrassed, and looked away. “I just...I've never really seen this many humans before. You're all so _small._ ”

William winced. _Yes,_ he was fairly short and scrawny for his age, and not especially athletic—and not _especially_ athletic looked more like “tiny and pathetic” when compared to his brother. “Trust me, it's hardly by choice. And I've never met _any_ Skrulls before, _or_ Kree; you're _much_ taller than I was expecting from your portrait.”

“Oh, no, did they show you the official portrait? It's terrible. I liked yours, you looked very regal.” Prince Dorrek scratched at the back of his head, looking awkward. “I...I _do_ have another base form, if that would be...less intimidating.”

 _That_ was something interesting. “ _Another_ base form? I thought most Skrulls only had the one.”

“Well, I'm not pure Skrull.” Grinning nervously, Dorrek tugged at a lock of blonde hair. “So I have a Kree shape too, it's just as easy to stay settled in. There aren't any portraits of me in Kree form, because it gets on my grandfather's nerves, but...here.”

Before William could give the standard polite protest, _oh no, no, don't inconvenience yourself_ (and he wasn't sure how correct that was anyway), Prince Dorrek had shifted, shrinking a bit and turning into...

_Wow._

“You...you like it?”

 _Shit, I didn't mean to say that out loud. He still has the pointy ears. And the fangs. Could I kiss someone with fangs? ...I could kiss someone with fangs. Wow._ William coughed, suddenly feeling very warm. “You're, uh, you're very. You're very handsome.”

A pink blush spread across Dorrek's nose, and he stared at his feet. He was _blindingly_ beautiful.

 _I could_ definitely _kiss someone with fangs._ But that of course led to thinking about the subject in great _detail,_ and he'd only known Prince Dorrek a day anyway, and he didn't know how Skrulls (or Kree) felt about...that. He coughed again. “So! The library! There's a corner of it that's just my collection, would you like to see?”

Dorrek blinked as if startled. “Yes! Yes, the library, I would love to see the library.”

\--

William shifted nervously from foot to foot. “What do you think?”

“You collect comic books?”

 _That_ didn't sound like approval, but then William wasn't entirely sure he was reading Dorrek's tone right. “Well, _yes._ Nobody else in the family reads them, but they're _very_ good, and there are plenty of good writers and artists working in comics now.”

There was a long, terrible, anxious pause, and then Dorrek said, wonderingly, “I _love_ it. I watch all of Father's serials, I love them, but we can't get any Earth comics at home because there isn't any trade. Father catches the broadcasts and records them.”

“Serials?”

“You know, Batman, Buck Rogers, the Lone Ranger...”

William blinked. “You like Batman?”

“I love Batman!” Dorrek looked thrilled. “I didn't know there was a Batman comic! You don't have Batman comics, do you?”

“Only every single one from the past forty years.”

One of the librarians, passing by with a cart, paused to bow and smiled when she heard them talking. Dorrek was staring at the shelves of comics with something that looked like joy. “This is amazing. I wish we were staying long enough for me to read them all.”

“You can read as many of them as you like while you _are_ here.” William smiled and ducked his head, feeling suddenly shy. “It'd be nice to have someone to talk with about them.”

“Where do I _start?_ ”

 _That_ was a question he could _answer._ “Well, if you want to start with something good that's older, _I_ really like Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil, their collections are over here...”

\--

A servant brought them sandwiches, and they crowded onto William's private reading couch and went through a stack of Batman comics. They read until their legs had cramped and their eyes hurt, sharing particularly choice panels and pieces of dialogue and sitting slightly closer together than William would normally have been comfortable with. The Skrull prince was...good company, in a way that William hadn't been expecting. He'd been expecting someone loud and boisterous and violent, someone who would sneer at him for being smaller and physically weaker than his brother. What he'd gotten, instead, was someone surprising quiet and awkward when he wasn't fully absorbed in the intricacies of court formality.

After a couple of hours, though, Dorrek tried to move, winced, and said, “My leg fell asleep.”

“Did it? ...oh, wow, mine too. And they're probably wondering where we are. We should...I don't know, get back to our tour. Although there isn't much more to see unless...they said you like sport?”

Dorrek grinned toothily. “Games, yes! I like games, I play several sports at home. My father told me that Earth sports are very different from the ones we play in the Kree and Skrull Empires. I like the idea of a game that's not meant to end with anyone's bones broken.”

“I...wow.” William bit his lip. “Well, I could show you the my brother's games complex. I don't play much, I'm not very good at it, but you might like basketball, there's a basketball court. And a pool. We could go swimming.”

“What's basketball?”

“Um, you run and jump, and put a ball through a hoop.”

“That sounds fun.” Dorrek stood, wincing again, and his hand was warm when he helped William up. “Show me how to play basketball.”

They crept out the back door of the library, near where the greenhouses were set up, and started to make their way towards the games complex when they heard a startled shout of laughter. William frowned. “Thomas? Is that you?”

There was a rustling sound, and then Thomas stumbled out of the nearest greenhouse, looking rumpled. His shirt was hanging open, his hair was a _mess,_ and there was a dark bruise on his collarbone that William realized, after a moment, looked like...

“Thomas, is that a _hickey?_ Who did you sneak into the palace this time?”

“Didn't sneak anyone in.” His twin was slurring his words. He giggled. “Delivered free of charge. Special delivery. Wow, you look...you look _glowy_ today.”

William took a closer look. “Thomas, are you _high?_ ”

Thomas grinned. “Maybe a little. It's good, though, it's very good. Hi, Dorrek.” He waved lazily at Dorrek, who waved back, looking puzzled.

“Seriously, Thomas, Uncle Pietro won't be happy if he learns that you skipped out on the court session this morning just to make time with some girl.”

“No! I'm diplomatic! I'm _very_ diplomatic! I'm doing diplomacy right now!”

As if it had been timed that way, there was an irritated huffing noise from the door of the greenhouse, and William caught a glimpse of a _different_ head of white hair and heard a sort-of familiar voice saying, “Thomas, are you coming back in or _what?_ ”

“Right! Right! Be right in!” Thomas flashed them a grin and then blurred and disappeared, the door of the greenhouse slamming behind him.

William stared back over his shoulder as they made their way toward the games complex. “What's gotten _into_ him?”

Dorrek frowned. “Noh-Varr, I think.”

“...pardon?”

“His saliva has some kind of hallucinogenic property, I think nanites or something?” Dorrek laughed suddenly, as if at a memory. “The effect is actually very entertaining. And he's a good kisser.”

This startled William so much that he tripped and almost fell, only saved from impact with the ground by Dorrek's arm suddenly around his shoulders. “How do _you_ know that?”

Dorrek turned pink. “We were...uh...drunk. The, the Shi'ar ambassador gave my father a case of Ar'kah brandy from the imperial cellars, and we stole a couple of bottles and brought them back to our suite.”

“You share a suite?”

“He _is_ supposed to be my bodyguard. So we stole some brandy—it's very tasty, by the way, sweet, like those red and green fruits we had after the banquet last night—”

“Apples?”

“Yes, those. Like apples. And we drank both bottles and talked and...we didn't get very far before we both passed out.” Dorrek scratched the back of his head, grinning nervously. “It was fun. He's a terrible hedonist, you know. Always bringing people back to the suite.”

Several images went through William's mind very quickly, and he blushed. “Yes. Well. Let's move on, shall we? Games. Let's go play something.”

\--

Dorrek was very good at basketball, but he didn't really understand the rules.

“You're not actually allowed to run into me, you know! It's not a contact sport!”

“I'm sorry.” The other prince twitched a pointed ear—he was still in his Kree shape, so it was distractingly cute. “I'm used to playing in the leagues on Hala and Skrullos, all of the games I play there involve a lot of running into people. And broken bones and blood and shouting. Once my cousin lost an eye.”

“Oh my _god._ ”

“Oh, don't worry, it was a Skrull cousin, he grew it back.”

“Oh.” William rubbed his arm where Dorrek had run into him. “Well. Good? Anyway, you do try to stop the other person getting the ball through the hoop, but you're supposed to do it by getting in their way, not by knocking into them. Or, well, sometimes players do knock into each other, those are the games Thomas likes best, but it's not how it's _meant_ to go.”

“I see. Can we try again?”

“Yes, let's.” Even though his feet hurt a bit, and he was uncomfortably aware of how his stupid shorts were clinging to him, and he'd never been very good at basketball. Dorrek was grinning at him, so clearly _he_ was enjoying himself, and his cheer was...infectious, intoxicating, lots of words starting with “in.” William found that he really _wanted_ Dorrek to be happy, even if that meant playing ten more games of pick-up basketball when he could have spent the entire day reading. “Let's play one more game, at least.”

 _This_ time, when Dorrek ran into him, it was actually an accident, and when William went tumbling to the floor with the other prince close behind it was with the thought that really, he was improving, that had been an excellent interference. He almost banged his head on the floor, but avoided the splitting headache when Dorrek's hand shot out and got in the way. The other prince's hand on the back of his head was very warm; William could, oddly enough, feel calluses on his fingers. _Wouldn't he want to morph those away?_

And then of course he realized that there they were. On the floor. Dorrek was on top of him, one hand under William's head, the other braced on the floor beside him. A flick of pointed ears. “I'm very sorry, I promise I didn't mean to this time.”

“No, I'm...” William blinked. “I am surprisingly all right with this turn of events. Thank you for keeping my head off the floor; the last time I had a concussion I accidentally filled the palace with butterflies.”

Dorrek laughed quietly, and William could _feel_ it. “Before we arrived here they told me about your powers. I suppose they _would_ make it difficult when you're not well.”

“It really does.” William shifted, and that only made it more awkward, so he tried to look away and moved in the wrong direction and ended up with his cheek pressed against Dorrek's palm. Dorrek's hand twitched.

Kissing someone with fangs wasn't all that different from kissing someone without. It was just more...textured. And Dorrek didn't taste like a mutant—the difference was hard to pin down, but it was definitely there.

They didn't realize that the door to the gymnasium had opened until they heard a polite cough from nearby, and then the sound of Lord Colonel Mar-Vell's cheerful voice. “Mind your tongue, son, you know how sharp it can get when you're not paying attention.”

Both princes looked up and froze.

Aunt Lorna gave another polite cough, Uncle Pietro let out a barking laugh, and William's _mother,_ Wanda Maximoff _herself,_ looked over at Princess Anelle and said, drily, “I see that our sons, at least, have struck a blow for international diplomacy.”


End file.
